Recently PennDOT has been signing new truck bypasses of various sections of state and US highways across the state. They're typically well signed along the route and marked with a TRUCK banner above the state or US highway shield, just as the ones from years and decades ago are marked. Many may be signed to avoid a high-risk, old bridge that high-weight vehicles should avoid, but there may be other reasons as well.
In early January 2014, PennDOT posted their 2013 "Type 10" County road maps. They do not show the new truck routes. I have not found a PennDOT document that describes the truck routes.
I'm seeking info on all these routes so that they can be added to the Clinched Highway Mapping site at http://cmap.m-plex.com/index.php. The ones whose routings are known to me are shown in these highway lists:
Bannered US highways: http://cmap.m-plex.com/hb/selecthwys.php?sys=usausb&rg=usa.pa&gr=p#r
All state highways: http://cmap.m-plex.com/hb/selecthwys.php?sys=usapa&rg=usa.pa&gr=p#r
Additionally, the following routes exist, but I do not know their full routings.
PA 913 Truck in Hustontown: Begins at the PA 655 and PA 913 intersection in Waterfall and follows PA 655 south to intersection of Church Street and Waterfall Road in Hustontown. The rest of the routing is unknown, though it probably continues south on PA 655 for some distance and then turning west and north to rejoin PA 913.
US 209 Truck in Brodheadsville: Bypasses US 209 between PA 115 and PA 534 on an unknown route.
And there are probably many more not yet in the two lists linked above.
US 30 Truck near Pittsburgh Airport, and a few others mentioned here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5738.msg252899#msg252899
Over here in southern Delaware County, the recently-erected signage has ALTERNATE TRUCK mounted above the route shield for those newly signed truck routes.
Since PA 420 runs along several older bridges & overpasses, much of the route now has Alternate Truck route in addition to the existing truck route that bypasses low clearance railroad overpasses in Prospect Park. The latter has existed for decades but the signage has gotten scarce.
One oddity regarding the new Alt. Truck PA 420. For the Darby Creek twin bridge/overpass crossing just north of the I-95 interchange, southbound truck traffic is routed around the bridge but northbound traffic is not. The reason for such is that the southbound crossing is an older structure that was once a drawbridge. The northbound structure is newer and was built along with I-95 in the 70s.
US 13 from Ridley Park to Darby Borough also has had a signed Truck route to avoid a low-clearance railroad overpass in Glenolden/Norwood for decades but the signage for it has since gotten scarce.
PA 252 now has a truck route with new signs that just popped up. The route follows
- starts at the intersection of PA 252 and PA 3.
- PA 252 Truck South follows PA 3 West until the intersection with Providence Rd.
- 252 Truck turns left at Providence Rd
- 252 Truck follows Providence until it intersects with 252
Thanks. I now have the full routings for US 30 Truck near Imperial and PA 252 Truck near Newtown Square, and they'll appear at CHM soon.
I'll also mention a few that were reported at Clinched Highway Mapping (CHM) and have already been added. The routes can be found on the CHM site (links in first post).
US 19 Truck near Harlansville.
US 209 Truck in Marshalls Creek.
PA 65 Truck in McKees Rocks.
PA 65 Truck in New Castle.
PA 488 Truck in Ellwood City.
PA 655 Truck avoiding Belleville.
The following have been mentioned without their full routings (still seeking info):
US 22 Truck near Canoe Camp.
US 209 Truck in Brodheadsville, between PA 115 and PA 434
PA 26 Truck near Huntingdon
PA 51 Truck near Pittsburgh, Boulevard of the Allies
PA 56 Truck near Brush Valley.
PA 420 Truck near Prospect Park. I have notes from 2005 saying that this route had already been decommissioned.
PA 420 Alt Truck near Prospect Park. Quite a surprise.
PA 519 Truck near the Bridgeville exit of I-79.
PA 867 Truck near I-99 Exit 7
PA 913 Truck in Hustontown, partially following PA 655.
I wonder if there are 100 more of them.
This subject has also been discussed in the SW Pennsylvania thread in the "Ohio Valley" regional board.
Truck PA 437 follows from north to south: PA 309, I-80, PA 940.
Just an FYI, the same source that gave me the heads up about the pending re-start of the Southern Beltway had informed me that preliminary design work will soon start to upgrade the section of US 422 from the end of the Moraine Park freeway segment to the west end of the Butler Bypass to a full freeway, part of this will include a upgrade to a full folded diamond for US 422 traffic going to Moraine;s north shore, this latter part I was able to verify via independent sources. Anyone out there hear anything?
Quote from: treichard on January 18, 2014, 09:16:13 PM
PA 51 Truck near Pittsburgh, Boulevard of the Allies
Tim, I posted about this one in the forums over @ CHM. This one isn't a valid route for us as it's posted "TO TRUCK PA-51".
http://clinched.s2.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=15264&mforum=clinched#15264
Quote from: ARMOURERERIC on January 19, 2014, 08:44:06 PM
Just an FYI, the same source that gave me the heads up about the pending re-start of the Southern Beltway had informed me that preliminary design work will soon start to upgrade the section of US 422 from the end of the Moraine Park freeway segment to the west end of the Butler Bypass to a full freeway, part of this will include a upgrade to a full folded diamond for US 422 traffic going to Moraine;s north shore, this latter part I was able to verify via independent sources. Anyone out there hear anything?
Can't say I've read anything about any of it. The Moraine ramps will be really nice. And it's something that I could see being accurate, as it's a fairly simple project with available land.
I'm a bit more skeptical about the stretch between Moraine & the Butler bypass becoming "full-freeway". There's a lot of private access to US-422 in that stretch (including the county fair grounds) and it would seem to be expensive and stuff.... Though I could easily see them upgrading that stretch like they did with US-22 in Westmoreland county.....
But that's just my guessing. I'm rather curious to hear more official plans.
When I was in Philadelphia in November, I saw a sign for a US 1 Truck route pointing south at the intersection of US 1 and PA 23. I can't find any information on that Truck route.
Quote from: ARMOURERERIC on January 19, 2014, 08:44:06 PM
Just an FYI, the same source that gave me the heads up about the pending re-start of the Southern Beltway had informed me that preliminary design work will soon start to upgrade the section of US 422 from the end of the Moraine Park freeway segment to the west end of the Butler Bypass to a full freeway, part of this will include a upgrade to a full folded diamond for US 422 traffic going to Moraine;s north shore, this latter part I was able to verify via independent sources. Anyone out there hear anything?
I could see them upgrading that segment of US-422 to the same style that US-22 is between I-376 and US-119 where it is a divided highway, but not a full freeway. The only way that they could make it a full freeway is to completely bypass the current stretch of highway because there are way too many businesses along it to fully upgrade to limited-access.
There's a really idiotic Truck route posted on I-99.
If you travel south on I-99 near Altoona, you'll see a "TO WEST TRUCK US22" stand-alone telling you it exits, shortly before the exit for the US22 freeway. The truck route follows from I-99x32 along Frankstown Rd east to US22, then if you really did follow US 22 West, you'd go through two towns, under I-99, then turn north to finally reach an interchange to get onto the US22 West freeway... which was 7 miles further, all entirely off a freeway and entirely on streets through towns.
If you drive US22 west from I-99, there is nothing restricting trucks from taking the regular exit ramp. I've tried looking online for the purpose of those signs (and there's many on the new "To Truck Route", which also goes up and over a mountain while I-99 follows relative flat terrain).
It is unusual. If it were US22 East, I would understand the reason, but not West. Hopefully it's just a mistake and the wrong direction was posted.
Quote from: Wiktionary, "truck", etymology 1, definition 3
(intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To deceive; cheat; defraud.
Quote from: Sykotyk on January 21, 2014, 08:43:45 PM
There's a really idiotic Truck route posted on I-99.
If you travel south on I-99 near Altoona, you'll see a "TO WEST TRUCK US22" stand-alone telling you it exits, shortly before the exit for the US22 freeway. The truck route follows from I-99x32 along Frankstown Rd east to US22, then if you really did follow US 22 West, you'd go through two towns, under I-99, then turn north to finally reach an interchange to get onto the US22 West freeway... which was 7 miles further, all entirely off a freeway and entirely on streets through towns.
If you drive US22 west from I-99, there is nothing restricting trucks from taking the regular exit ramp. I've tried looking online for the purpose of those signs (and there's many on the new "To Truck Route", which also goes up and over a mountain while I-99 follows relative flat terrain).
It is unusual. If it were US22 East, I would understand the reason, but not West. Hopefully it's just a mistake and the wrong direction was posted.
I was in the area over the weekend, and the signs for said idiotic truck route have been removed.